Super Country Entertains with a Country Style

When six friends get together to perform over the summer, it’s not the money that pushes them to make country and gospel music, it’s a love for what they are doing. 

With over three centuries of stage experience between them, the members of Super Country are looking for nothing more than a good time and a chance to give an audience a quality country music experience.

“All of us have been playing music for all of our lives,” rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist, Virgile Poling said.

That is a key to what they play. Playing the standards of their generation, artists like Hank Williams, Sr., George Straight and other “generational” variety are what has gained Super Country a following, Mr. Poling said.

Mr. Poling said he can still remember the days of playing at Attica State Penitentiary. 

“That was about the scariest place I had played,” he said. “ But it really put the music in perspective.”

After going through security, and hearing door after door slam shut behind him, Mr. Poling and his band took the stage.

“It was really something to see these men enjoying the music we were playing,” he said. 

That experience was one of the first that showed him how powerful the notes he played on his guitar really were. 

“Those men, mostly hardened criminals, some of them were tearing up as we played,” he said. “Those that couldn’t come to the show for whatever reason still had the music piped in to them, and they were touched as well”

It is that kind of emotion that makes the music worth playing for all of the members of  Super Country .

“We play because it’s fun,” Lead Guitarist Dean Peterson said. “We love it, but giving someone a smile on their face is what makes it worth while.”

Pulling that emotional response form the audience is important, but it is not possible without a larger, key ingredient – the people in the band.

“We enjoy playing the music, but you have to enjoy the people you are on stage with,” Mr. Peterson said.

The six members of the band all came together one Sunday after church.

“The East Randolph United Methodist Church has an open jam every third Sunday,” Drummer Don Dechow said. “We had never played before.”

The band, got together on one of those Sundays just a couple of years ago.

“We started to play and everything just seemed to work,” Mr. Peterson recalled. “Everyone was on, musically.”

A band playing music with the experience of this band just has one problem, according to Mr. Peterson, “Mortality.”

“We have had a couple members pass away over the years,” Mr. Dechow said. “We have been fortunate to find other musicians and continue to play.”

Music has always brought friendship with it, and Super Country is no different. The combination of music and friendship has a power over those that have them.

“If you’re having a bad day, playing music helps a lot,” Mr. Peterson said. “It really helps to mellow things right out.”

The band has played to area crowds at the Cattaraugus County Fair, in Little Valley a couple of times, and enjoys playing at village square events in Ellington and other places.

The idea of free events seems to fit the attitude of the musicians in Super Country quite well.

“We do this (play music) for the fellowship,” 

Mr. Poling said. “We do it just for fun.”

“We play for our own self satisfaction” 

Mr. Peterson said. “That’s our payback.”

Super Country is Frank Jesmer on bass and vocals, Virgle Poling on rhythm guitar and lead singer,  Dorothy Stoll on keyboards and a singer, her husband, Don Stoll, on steel guitar, Dean Peterson on lead Guitar and Don Dechow on drums.

 They can be found playing in the village square in Ellington or in Franklinville, playing at a stable on Wednesday nights.